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Change It Up

Ready to mix things up? Now is the time to take advantage of indoor time and methodically go through your home room by room to get organized and change things up a bit. I don’t know about you, but I suffer from a serious case of post-holiday-blues, so this is the best cure-all I can think of to get me through.

During the winter months, I am certainly a more-is-more type of girl. I don’t mind a little extra clutter—books strewn on tables, blankets piled high on chairs—but I do need order. My big project (the basement cleanse) will continue through the winter months allowing me to box things up that I no longer find useful. Then it’s time to decide what stays and what goes, and what gets moved upstairs. Once you’re through with the purging and the boxing, now comes the fun part, the re-decoration. Bookcases are a great piece of furniture to start with…

Pull everything of the shelves. Yes, everything. If you’re a little intimidated by this process, simply take a picture of the way you have things displayed if you want to put it all back. But please, don’t look at the picture while you’re creating!

Now decide what’s going back on the shelf. Books? Check. Family photos? Check. Continue to build your list.

Gather additional items, things from around the house that will enjoy being moved to its new home. A collection of boxes, vases—think color, shape, size, and texture.

Now begin placing your items back on the shelves. Start with the most prominent shelf, the one you can see eye-to-eye or the top shelf depending on how tall the bookcase actually is.

What do you place first? Either start with the items you have the most of, books for instance, or the largest, most attractive item. This will become the focal point of the entire bookcase. Use the photo above as reference. The first or second shelf could have been the starting point.

Now think about balance. Larger items need to be balanced with smaller items and vice versa. Grouping things together allows you to fill in space without having to use just one item. This is where size and shape come into play.

Evenly disperse colors throughout. If you have a few green pieces, move the green around. If you prefer to color block books or accessories, like they did with this bookcase, have fun balancing warm and cool blocks of colors on each shelf. If you don’t have a lot of color to work with, texture becomes even more important. Remember, book jackets are smooth and sometimes shiny, so it’s important to pair opposite objects together. Organic items like plants and flowers are always a safe bet.

Now stand back and take a look at what you’ve done. Does it look balanced? Did you distribute colors, textures, and play with both horizontal and vertical placement? Tweak if you must. Stack, layer, and slide until you get just the right look.

Take a photo of your new bookcase. When you’re in the mood to change things out again, you can always change things back seasonally or whenever you’re ready for a new look.